Tullamore Farm is still in the throws of calving but there is now light at the end of the tunnel.
As of Wednesday, 73 cows out of 88 were calved with 74 live calves on the ground. Four sets of twins have more than made up for three mortalities; one premature, one at birth and one for unknown reasons at less than a week old.
Newborn calves are getting to grass at one- to two-days of age with their mothers, which is significantly reducing the pressure on housing and the risk of disease. No matter how well hygiene is monitored, calves born during the latter end of a calving season are more at risk of infection so prompt turn-out is paramount for these calves.
Elsewhere, 30 spring 2018-born heifers have been picked out for breeding. These will receive AI and sold as in-calf replacement heifers at the back end of the year.
In terms of replacements for the farm, eight Limousin cross heifers out of the dairy herd have been purchased.
Lambing is progressing just as well as the calving. One hundred and fifty ewes are now lambed out of 185.
The flock delivered excellent scanning rate of 2.07 back in January and so far this this is translating into a very good crop of lambs thanks to very few health problems or lambing issues to report to date.
Despite turnout being suspended for Tuesday and Wednesday due to the bad weather forecast, by-and-large newborn lambs have been getting to grass from one day of age.
While turnout was delayed, lambs got one night of bonding in an individual pen before being moved into group sheds.
One ewe died this week from a suspected case of grass tetany.
This week’s average farm cover is 1,000kgDM/ha which is quite high for this time of year.
However, with silage ground now closed and more cattle and sheep going to grass on a daily basis, it should not run too far ahead.
As well as that, the average growth rate this week is only 16kgDM/ha/day, mainly as a result of frost at night and low day time temperatures, so heavier grass covers are needed for now. When growth does pick up significantly, there may be an opportunity to take out surplus grass.
Thirty acres of silage are closed now. They received slurry earlier in the spring and got two bags per acre of Cut Sward at closing.
All of the grazing ground received half a bag per acre of urea earlier in the year and we have been spreading watery slurry on paddock post-grazing.
For the week commencing 24 March, Tullamore Farm manager Shaun Diver curated the @Irelandsfarmers twitter account. The account, which features a different Irish farm each week, draws in a worldwide audience and Shaun used the opportunity to document the day-to-day running of a suckler and sheep farm in Ireland. Below are just some of the highlights.
From March 25th we welcome County Offaly based farm manager, Shaun Diver @diver_shaun on the @farmersjournal 'Tullamore Farm'. This is a Spring Suckler and sheep demo unit finishing bull beef and marketing replacement heifers and also with a lamb finishing enterprise. pic.twitter.com/W40hCs3vhB
— IrelandsFarmers (@IrelandsFarmers) March 24, 2019
Hi all, Shaun Diver Tullamore Farm Manager here, many thanks to @Anna_Dairy for her excellent week... we are now in our busiest period on the farm, 70 ewes lambed this week and cows continue to calf, so I will put up as much content as I can and may be slow to reply to tweets but
— IrelandsFarmers (@IrelandsFarmers) March 24, 2019
Grass measuring on Tullamore Farm, just a break down of why it’s so important for us to measure grass here from a management and animal welfare point of view!! #TullamoreFarm @farmersjournal @FJBeef pic.twitter.com/GwecIQRzTL
— IrelandsFarmers (@IrelandsFarmers) March 25, 2019
Success story! She’s calved all be it with small bit of assistance the head was slightly turned on the calf and heifer couldn’t push him up..our policy is if the calf is pulled he gets tubed, milked 3 liters from the cow and fed him.. shes a quiet heifer never even tried to kick pic.twitter.com/gyQuTYTtve
— IrelandsFarmers (@IrelandsFarmers) March 25, 2019
Great start to the morning, this is a calf from the limousin stock bull, Tomriland kestrel, sired by ampertaine foreman, calved unassisted, cow is a 4 star cow ???????? pic.twitter.com/FqJhJiBm8Z
— IrelandsFarmers (@IrelandsFarmers) March 26, 2019
So we are in an U16 month bull beef system, this means our bull calves are fattened and finished by 16 months of age, they are now one year old and are an average weight of 510kgs, they will move off the farm from June onwards. Any opinions? @FJBeef @farmersjournal #TullamoreFarm pic.twitter.com/UOaMxozrYN
— IrelandsFarmers (@IrelandsFarmers) March 26, 2019
We sell our heifer calves as "replacements" we will put them in calf from next month on and hopefully bring them out to a sale in the autumn, they are now averaging 363kg .. what easy calving bulls should I use? Let me know what you think.. @farmersjournal @fjbeef #ShowStoppers pic.twitter.com/1wrg4X8TYF
— IrelandsFarmers (@IrelandsFarmers) March 26, 2019
The Flock: A flock of 180 and increasing, Mule ewe flock, a mule is a hill ewe crossed with a lowland (blue Leicester) Ram, known for mothering traits. We lamb in mid/late March, with Texel and Charolais rams used @farmersjournal @FJSheep pic.twitter.com/ivwOTR74es
— IrelandsFarmers (@IrelandsFarmers) March 27, 2019
Lambing is progressing well, due Date was the 20th of March with 90 ewes lambed to date.. they are turned out to grass with their lambs as soon as possible, weather permitting. They are bunched in small bunches and then moved into bigger bunches @farmersjournal #TullamoreFarm pic.twitter.com/Cwrmr4SDvm
— IrelandsFarmers (@IrelandsFarmers) March 27, 2019
As I said I bunch them up into bigger bunches after a few days, there are currently 75 ewes out with 143 lambs, as u can see each lamb and ewes gets marked with a number, this allows me to know who belongs to who.. lambs are also weighed at birth and tagged @CormacTagging pic.twitter.com/R8JbEz48bC
— IrelandsFarmers (@IrelandsFarmers) March 27, 2019
"finished" lambs at about 14 weeks of age, these way around 44kgs liveweight and produce a carcass of 20.5kg, we market the through the Offaly lamb producer group where we get paid a bonus for producing a prime product, +10c/kg for a U grading lamb, but cut for fat score 4 pic.twitter.com/bPX3OhZAyB
— IrelandsFarmers (@IrelandsFarmers) March 27, 2019
Although we are a Demo Farm we face the same challenges as any beef/sheep farmer. It’s a tough industry at the moment but we can’t let our systems fall because of that. Do what you do and do it well.Tullamore Farm checking out. Thank you all. See ya on the 24th July.@diver_shaun pic.twitter.com/vSmIAlucLk
— IrelandsFarmers (@IrelandsFarmers) March 31, 2019
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